Recently my family received some very sad news. My remaining Grandad, my Dad’s dad has been given a couple of months to live. He has been living with cancer for 14 years but the drugs originally used to fight his myeloma have led to leukaemia and the specialist says there is nothing they can do.

My maternal Grandad died a few years ago from Alzheimer’s and cancer. And his gradual decline into the harsh life of Alzheimer’s meant he was figuratively gone before he was diagnosed with cancer. Dad’s dad however has lived around 9 years longer than he was supposed to and we kind of expected him to keep fighting forever. It has been a hard couple of weeks for everyone just trying to come to grips with the situation.

I handled it in my usual way, taking everything in at once, realising all the implications and then deciding the only way to stop crying and feeling shitty is to not think about it.

Instead, I got tattooed. In honour of both of my Grandads who I love. Although I do not believe in a god, and I am agnostic about spirits and an afterlife, having this reminder on me means I can never forget where I come from. Even when I’m old and wrinkly (assuming I live that long) and it looks like I have dirt on my arm, I’ll know that I had a life full of family that loved me.

Thursday the 15th of October I went to Tattoo City to book an appointment to have a tattoo designed and decided to look at some fonts while I was there. I had an idea of getting the g tattooed I just didn’t know where I wanted it or what it would look like. The guy from Tattoo City (I need to find out his name) was so friendly and sat with me to have a look. I found a font I liked and he suggested I could get it done that weekend at the Lower Hutt Tattoo Show and he kindly photocopied the font for me to take along.

This isn’t the bigger tattoo I’m planning, so I hope you’re not all disappointed expecting to see that.

I hadn’t planned on getting tattooed so quickly but there is no time like the present. So I rocked up to the Tattoo City booth on Saturday the 17th only to find they were too busy and was sent to Sacred Tattoo.
I was lucky enough to be tattooed by Erin from Sacred Tattoo. Sacred is located in Auckland and usually very hard to get an appointment with. The work they produce is amazing. Erin however was just back from the UK and had forgotten they were coming to the show so she had a spot available right away!

I was expecting tears and pain, but what I got was scratching, a few winces on the bony bits, and a numb hand from the vibrating and the lack of blood flowing in my arm due to the angle I had to hold it. The most painful part was the way I had to twist my arm to get my wrist to sit right.
$150 later and I am marked forever.
I also managed to win a bag of protat aftercare products when the guy on stage called out for any women tattooed on the day!

I can hardly wait till I get the big tatt done which will be revealed after December 25. I am hopefully going to see the preliminary design tomorrow (today really I guess), but I’ve booked the actual tattoo appointment for the 14th of December!

We take off for a week tomorrow (today!) to stay with The Boys dad and my family and to visit Grandad. I’ll still be around but not as much. We fly back very early on Sunday the 8th.